World Wide Web Consortium publishes accessibility testing rules as an official web standard

The World Wide Web Consortium has published Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format 1.1 as a W3C Recommendation. This means the document is now an official web standard, following review and agreement within the W3C community. The standard was published on 5 February 2026 by the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group.

To understand why this recommendation matters, it helps to start with accessibility. Web accessibility is about making websites and digital services usable by people with disabilities, for example, people who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or captions. To check whether a website is accessible, developers and auditors run accessibility tests. These tests can be automated using software tools, or done manually by human testers.

Until now, accessibility tests were often written and described in different ways, depending on the tool or organisation. This made it difficult to compare results, understand how a test works, or reuse testing methods across projects. ACT Rules Format addresses this problem by defining a common structure for writing accessibility test rules.

In simple terms, the ACT Rules Format is a template for describing accessibility tests. It specifies what information a test rule should include, such as what it checks, which accessibility requirement it relates to, what conditions must be met, and how results should be interpreted. By following this format, test authors can clearly explain what a test does and how it should be applied.

The standard is designed to work for both automated testing tools and manual testing procedures. Tool developers can use ACT rules to build or document automated checks, while accessibility specialists can use the same format to describe manual inspections. This shared approach helps ensure that different tools and testers are checking the same things in the same way.

Another key goal of the ACT Rules Format is transparency. Because rules are written in a consistent and human-readable structure, anyone involved in accessibility work can review, understand, and discuss them. This supports trust in testing results and makes it easier to improve or refine testing methods over time.

ACT Rules Format 1.1 builds on earlier work and is accompanied by an overview document that explains the broader ACT approach and how the rules fit into accessibility testing practices. With its publication as a W3C Recommendation, the format is intended to serve as a stable reference for organisations, auditors, and tool developers working on web accessibility.